As Minerd.com marks its 25th anniversary on May 7, 2025, we pause to honor the woman who unknowingly inspired it half a century ago -- Jessie Elizabeth (Miner) Schultz of Washington, PA, the great-aunt of the founder of the website.

This image shows Jessie and the nephew in 1984 at the small log house in Hundred, Wetzel County, WV, where her mother had grown up and where her parents Harry Orlan and Armena Viancy (Cain) Miner had been wed in 1900, prior to their move to Washington. She had never been to the cabin before and was surprised to learn that it was still standing. Seeing it was on her "wish list."

Nine years before this photo was taken, while at a 1975 Miner family reunion in Washington Park, Washington, she had given the nephew an album filled with vintage tintype and cardboard mounted photographs of the old Miners, among them her grandparents Andrew Jackson and Mary Louise (Johnston) Miner of Washington and great-uncle and aunt, Ephraim and Rosetta (Harbaugh) Miner of Kingwood, PA.

She told the nephew that she was making this gesture because he was the eldest son of the eldest son of her elder brother Odger Miner, that he carried on the family name and was the only one to have looked at and asked her questions about the album at the reunion.

Jessie's instructions were short and clear: "Go find these people someday."

In making this gift, she changed the trajectory of the teenage nephew’s life, and he embraced the task with passion and vigor. Over the years, he contacted many distant cousins, made research discoveries, traveled widely and reported back to her about the findings. As a result, Jessie's loving inspiration is reflected far and wide on this website. And what she did not know, and could not have envisioned, was that thanks to the power of the internet and search engines, her instructions would be flipped, as most of the followers of this site over the years have found us instead.

Jessie was stricken with a brain tumor and passed away at the age of 78 on July 28, 1993. It would not be surprising if she is partying and worshipping in Heaven with all of the long-lost cousins far and wide whom she knew were "out there" somewhere. Yet she would undoubtedly be astonished at the enormity of the headcount. Thank you, beloved aunt, for your gift to us all.

VisitPITTSBURGH is the promotional sponsor of this page. Be sure to get a copy of the Greater Pittsburgh Convention & Visitors Bureau's Official Visitor's Guide, a 25-page workbook to help event organizers stay on track, no matter what type of reunion or meeting they are planning to hold. The booklet features a page of ideas by the founder of this website, headlined "Take It from a Professional."

Copyright © 2025 Mark A. Miner